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Lex Luthor Joins DC's 'Justice League'

Mike McKone/DC Entertainment

DC's premiere superteam gets a makeover in April, with the criminal mastermind replacing Superman in the core Justice League, while a spinoff team moves to Canada.

DC Entertainment's currently running Forever Evil storyline is going to have long-lasting ramifications for many titles in the publisher's superhero line -- including the Justice League family of titles, which undergoes a significant reinvention in its wake.

Luthor's involvement with the team isn't some part of a villainous scheme to rule the world, writer Geoff Johnstold the Associated Press; he really thinks that he's a superhero following the events of Forever Evil -- even if he doesn't necessarily know what that actually means. "I think the most interesting thing is that Lex doesn't realize what it's like to be a superhero, what the life is like," Johns said. "You make enemies, they attack you on a personal level. And he's just Lex Luthor. He has no code name, no mask. He has to deal with the ramifications of that."

Inviting Lex Luthor into the Justice League may end up being what sends members of the spinoff team Justice League of America to Canada, as announced last year. That story will be told in the pages of the new Justice League United series announced yesterday, with writer Jeff Lemire and artist Mike McKone promising a series that will "really touch on every corner of the DC Universe in one team," according to Lemire.

That translates into a new Canadian locale for the series, as well as a return for the classic DC character Adam Strange, who's still splitting his time between Earth and the far-off planet of Rann, John Carter-style. "I've gotta say I've put more work into this book than I have for anything I've ever done for DC," Lemire told USA Today. "It's been really fulfilling, and hopefully on top of all that, it's a big fun action-adventure superhero comic that people will enjoy."